Silver vs. Gold on XBox Live
In Games | Tags: Games, PS3, Xbox-360, XBox-Live | 7 comments | permalink
So it seems that Microsoft have now started to show preference to their XBox Live Gold Members (at long last). The British Gaming Blog (amongst others) have been carrying the story here that the new Gears of War trailer has appeared on the XBox Live Marketplace, but only for Gold level members at the moment. It will appear later (by roughly a week) for Silver members too. It appears that this news has upset quite a few people (presumably all of them being Silver members) as they cry “no fair”. But is it fair or not?
Well I have to admit that I think it’s a master stroke from Microsoft. I also think that they are perfectly justified in doing it. After all Gold members do pay £40 a year for the service (an amount I don’t mind paying at all) and for this it’s great to think that Microsoft are going to give me some perks. As mentioned in the BGB article, Sony will be offering a single-tier online service that includes game demos for free. However, how many customers would Sony get for a premium online service if they charged £40 a year on top of the cost of the console? Very few I would guess. Lets face it, at £40 a year there’s a lot of year’s of subscription on XBox Live compared to a free service on the PS3 before you’ve spent the same amount.
So what should these disgruntled Silver members do? Well I guess there are a few options. They can always go and buy a PS3 and get the free service there (although then missing out on a Gears of War trailer won’t affect them will it???!!). They could upgrade to Gold and fork out £40 a year for the privilige, or they can remain on Silver, wait the extra week for stuff and become more frustrated everytime a new piece of content is released to the Gold members first. Me personally? I’d not be without my Gold membership, and I’ll enjoy the perks that come with it…
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I’m currently using the free months trial on Gold, but apart from playing other people online, I can’t see the benifits. What else does Gold give you for £40 a year?
Well the playing on Live is the biggest benefit. The only other real thing is being able to get hold of demos (typically) a week before Silver members. And in the case of the Halo 3 beta, you obviously needed a gold account. It may be that they run betas like this more often in the future…
im going out to buy a xbox 360 on friday, only because ive discovered forza 2 and it looks amazing. anyway, im unsure of the difference on silver and gold. i want to have the ability to race against others and take full advantage of forza 2′s online features – can i do this on silver or do i need gold? man i cant wait for friday for forza 2!!!
thanks
You’ll need a gold membership to do this. However, with a new XBox Live account you will get 1 month’s free trial to try it out so have a go with that first and see how you get on (free trial applies to Silver accounts too so you don’t need to spend anything on Live to get your free month).
thanks, another question! When I have forza 2, I’m going to build up my credits and get to know my cars handling etc etc before I embark online against others, when does the free 30 day gold start – the day i purchase the machine or when i register for live service – basically, can i hold off the free 30 days for a while?
Your 30 day trial starts from the day you register for a live account. So you could play offline for a while and work your cars up there and then register for an account and start your 30 day free trial then…
do you need gold membership to use the auction house on forza 2